Think Less, Live More

If you think too much about the improbability of human life it will drive you crazy. Around the bend. Into a psychotic state and a strait-jacket. Or onto a barstool in the middle of a weekday afternoon, staring at your own image in the mirror above the bottles.

Pondering the physical elements that we try and protect ourselves against is daunting: fires, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes, tsunamis. Add the crap human beings create like war, anarchy, genocide, pogroms; throw in the emotional storms that buffet every human life sooner or later – loss, jealousy, envy, greed, hatred, remorse, anger -- and it’s a wonder more people don’t go totally apeshit.

In fact, it’s not what happens during the course of a lifetime that’s so amazing, but what doesn’t happen.

We fear the dark and we fear the random act. For instance, you stop at 7-11 on your way home from work to buy a six-pack of beer, a bag of potato chips and a pack of gum, and as you’re checking out a meth-addicted kid with a shaved head and a Nazi swastika tattooed on his cheek bursts into the store with a fully-loaded assault rifle and starts shooting. Before you can react, a bullet slices through your skull, instantly terminating your life. Wrong place, wrong moment, you’re time here is over; you exit as a tragic crime statistic.

We want life to be predictable and safe and easy and meaningful, even though one can argue that it’s unpredictable, dangerous, difficult and meaningless. We’re born into a death sentence, and unless you’re into religious hocus-pocus and believe in everlasting life in an air-conditioned heaven, it’s a bleak deal to contemplate.

The wealthy have innumerable ways to inoculate themselves against natural calamity and random acts of mayhem. During the recent Southern California wildfires, folks in certain high-profile zip codes enjoyed concierge fire protection, courtesy of their insurance company. Gated communities, private schools, boutique medical care, organically grown food all serve to increase the odds and decrease the risks.

Rich, poor or in between, living takes bravery. Open the door, step outside, keep your eyes and ears wide open, but don’t think too much. It’s better that way.